Tomb Raider: Legend - Story

Story

Years ago nine-year-old Lara Croft and her mother, Amelia Croft, survived a plane crash in the Himalayas. After taking shelter in the ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery, Lara discovered an ornate stone dais holding an ancient sword, and activated it. Amelia came and ripped out the sword, and afterwards, the dais exploded and Lara watched in horror as her mother vanished before her eyes.

Years later, an adult Lara searches for a similar stone dais located in the ruins of Tiwanaku, Bolivia. She encounters a group of mercenaries who are under orders to kill her on sight. Fighting through them, she proceeds to a temple where she finds the dais and James Rutland, a rich American socialite and self-proclaimed adventurer. Rutland, holding an unusual sword fragment, mentions Amanda Evert, a friend of Lara's who supposedly died years before in an excavation only Lara survived. After overcoming his soldiers, she confirms that this dais was the same design as that of the Himalayan.

Lara returns to a tomb in Peru to confirm or disprove Amanda Evert's death in a tragedy that befell them years ago. A teenaged Lara was excavating the tomb when she and Amanda witnessed an unknown demonic entity kill the rest of their team. Amanda managed to entrap the wraith in a glowing stone she ripped from a wall, but she became trapped under falling rubble when escaping. While in the tomb, Lara discovers the artefact she is seeking may be linked to Excalibur – part of the King Arthur legends – and that Amanda survived the cave-in and is searching for the sword, which had reportedly been broken into four fragments that are now spread across the globe. Now knowing what she is looking for, Lara recalls that one piece was stolen by Yakuza Kumicho Shogo Takamoto, and arranges a meeting with him.

Lara attends an executive retreat in Tokyo, where she attempts to negotiate with Takamoto for his sword fragment. However, he refuses to surrender it and after being insulted by Lara, orders his men to kill her. Lara dispatches them and climbs his penthouse apartment. Takamoto uses the power of his fragment to fight Lara, but is killed. Lara escapes the scene in a helicopter. Having located Rutland in Ghana, Lara enters a temple site her parents had been to before she was born. Rutland mentions an artefact called the Ghalali Key, which can re-assemble Excalibur. After a fight where Rutland uses his fragment's powers, Lara steals his fragment and leaves him wounded. Zip and Alister, members of her crew, inform her that Amanda had raided Croft Manor looking for the Ghalali Key only moments ago, and is headed to an abandoned military base in Kazahkstan to search for another fragment.

Lara assists the Kazahks in fighting against Rutland's men, and races against Amanda to the lab. The train crashes inside the base, although both Amanda and Lara survive. Lara discovers that the laboratory was the location of failed experiments conducted on a sword fragment by the KGB fifty years ago. Lara re-encounters Amanda, who is still bitter about being left to die. Amanda uses the wraith from Paraíso against Lara, although she defends against it and recovers the fragment and an eleventh century knight's shield which will supposedly lead her to the next fragment.

Following a map on the back of the shield (which is supposedly Lancelot's), Lara's search brings her home to Cornwall, England. She discovers the real King Arthur's tomb hidden under a now-derelict tourist attraction, along with the final sword fragment. Inside the tomb, Lara discovers that after Arthur's death, four of his knights – Lancelot, Percival, Galahad and Bors – took fragments of the sword to locations around the world (inspiring the myth of the Grail Quest), while the final fragment was left with Arthur by Bedivere in the hope of resurrecting the Once and Future King. After escaping a sea serpent guarding the tomb, Lara returns to her home to figure out how to reforge Excalibur, and realizes that the Ghalali Key Rutland mentioned was in fact a pendant belonging to her mother, who had it with her in the plane crash. Lara returns to the crash site in Nepal and finds the Key. She then proceeds with a heavy heart to the temple where she last saw her mother and uses the Ghalali Key to restore Excalibur, then attempts but fails to reactivate the broken dais there, before escaping the collapsing temple.

Returning to the stone dais in Bolivia, Lara finds Amanda, Rutland and their mercenaries awaiting her. Using Excalibur, Lara eliminates all the mercenaries and Rutland. An outraged Amanda merges herself with the wraith and attacks Lara. With the power of Excalibur, Lara defeats the hybrid creature, destroys the entity, and separates it from Amanda. Lara uses Excalibur on the dais and is confronted with a vision of her mother from years ago. She realizes that the portal spans time and there is a chance she can save her mother. Amanda, however, destroys this chance and encourages Amelia to remove the sword.

Lara grows furious at the realization that Amanda was responsible for the apparent causality loop that claimed her mother, and threatens to kill her if she doesn't explain her involvement. Amanda states that Lara's mother is alive and in Avalon, the mythical resting place of King Arthur, where Amanda herself wanted to go. Lara spares Amanda's life, but knocks her unconscious and remarks that "From this moment, your every breath is a gift from me". The game ends as Lara leaves Bolivia, giving orders to Zip and Alister as she begins the quest for her mother.

The events of Tomb Raider: Underworld follow.